NAUTICAL LOG is an activist blog and publishes Posts on mostly maritime with some non-maritime subjects. We are open to receiving comments and will publish those which are about the subject matter using appropriate professional language, anonymous comments are not published.
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The PRC PLAN has achieved the release of the crew of a Chinese fishing vessel. The 26 person crew had been held for 18 months by pirates off the coast of Somalia. The 26 were 13 Chinese, 12 Vietnamese and one Taiwanese. The PLAN did not say how the release was obtained however they have a naval detachment escorting Chinese vessel through the recoginized pirate areas.

Clearly this is a feather in the cap of the PLAN and shows that they are becoming more and more capable. Unfortunately however this also builds the confidence of the PRC to continue ignore the claims of other nations regarding EEC areas in the South China Sea and the East China Sea.

The Algerian training ship ANS La Soumman 937 made a recent port call in New York. NAUTICAL LOG was struck by its similarity to the PLAN Zheng He 81 and a little research showed that it had been built in the PRC for Algeria.

It also struck NAUTICAL LOG that the Officers and Cadets looked rather uncomfortable, surly and rather untidy with one Officers white cap cover unbuttoned at the back of his cap while some of the Cadets looked as if it was the first time some of them had ever worn a uniform cap.

The Algerian Navy uses army rank titles so it seems that the vessel is commanded by a Colonel, all very strange to a seafarer. Well one supposes that things have too start somewhere but this lot have a long way to go.

It is worth noting that the PRC makes contact and agreements with all these smaller nations who dream of moving up the ranks of nations from the third world to the first. With such agreements both diplomatic and military the PRC is building up a world girding collection of c…

Continuing its "Harmonious Mission" (love those names) the PRC PLAN training ship PLAN ZhengHe arrived in Ecuador berthing at the Port of Guayaquil on July 13, 2012 according to "Peoples Daily Online". The usual welcoming military honours were conducted by the Naval Academy of Ecuador.

Ethnic Chinese living in Ecuador also greeted the training hip on arrival. Ecuador will be the only South American country visited by PLAN Zheng He on this worldwide voyage. It is understood by NAUTICAL LOG that some other South American nations for various reasons declined to have the training ship make a port call in their nation.

A variety of data comes across the NAUTICAL LOG desk each day from many different sources. Some is used in writing the Posts while much is filed away for future use or just filed away!!

Our Summer reading programme this year is re-reading the Tom Clancy novels which now go back over two decades starting with "The Hunt for RED OCTOBER" in 1994. Of course there are his other books on personalities and equipment of the United States military.

It is remarkable in reading the older novels how the same adversaries and problems are still with us in 2012 together with the shifting alliances of the United States such as the Republic of China (ROC), Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The adversaries remain the former USSR now Russia once again under an "elected" Czar rather than the Romanov's, The Peoples Republic of China (PRC), Islamic Republic of Iran, and Iraq. Together with other troublesome areas such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and the Arab nations…

Well when you navigate in shoal waters it can happen all too easily. A PRC PLAN frigate grounded while prowling around the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea on Half Moon Shoal. This is one of the disputed islands with the Philippines which claims they are part of its territorial waters but is unable to enforce their claim. This news came in this morning from BBC Asia to the NAUTICAL LOG Press Folder.

Of interest is the fact that when the PLAN frigate went aground their were six PLAN vessels nearby that could render assistance (actually more vessels than the entire Philippine Navy) and refloat the ship. Thus the incident could be controlled before there was yet another international incident over the South China Sea territorial claims.

According to the PRC MOD the PLAN frigate is returning home under its own power with relatively minor damage - no doubt with an end to the Commanding Officers career along with the Bridge Watch team.

As usual with the PRC -PLAN this announcement comes two days after the event. After transiting the Panama Canal and refuelling at the Pacific side the PRC PLAN training ship PLAN Zheng He headed off towards it home port of Dalian, China - or did it ? The announcement says that the PLAN Zheng He crossed the equator at a speed of 17 knots at 1736 July 11, 2012 from the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern Hemisphere for the first time.

The vessel has sailed to Southeast Asia, Indian Ocean, Red Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea a voyage so far of some 17,000 nautical miles. NAUTICAL LOG is quite sure they know how to navigate excellently and also that China is to the north from the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal. So where are they going ? Well that is the question as the Press Release gave no further information about the destination or destinations in the Southern Hemisphere.

To quote from history "the world wonders". As usual the PRC -PLAN is no…

It seems the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) are determined to cause international problems by making territorial claims with their neighbors. One really has to wonder why this is being done as one would think the PRC has its hands full trying to handle what is still really a third world nation - even though they now consider themselves a first world power. With its vast territory, multiple nationalities, languages, religious believes and in many cases hatred of the Beijing Government it has many, many internal problems.

Having recently set the cat amongst the pigeons in the South China Sea they are now provoking tensions or worse with the Japanese over the Senkaku Islands, known in the PRC as Diaoyu Islands. Situated west-south-west of Okinawa, north-east of Taiwan, therefore well east of the PRC, in the East China Sea the Senkaku Islands have been historically administered by Japan and were regarded as Japanese territory before and since World War 2.

It is with some degree of amazment that NAUTICAL LOG reached the 80,000 visitor mark just as we went on line this morning. As regular readers know we do not use Twitter®, Facebook®, RSS® and so we are found by search engines only.

Interestingly the 80,000th. visitor is marked by sitemeter® as "unknown" and the language used was Hebrew - we wonder who that was.

We shall continue writing on issues of interest to seafarers, activist work in the maritime world, marine consulting, and our concern about seafarers held as hostages by pirates - even though we no longer write a comment on that subject after each Post.

The U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) has issued the following WARNING to Mariners:

"The following is a maritime warning for mariners operating in the Gulf of Oman, South Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, and the Bab el Mandeb regions. Be advised , elevated regional tensions have increased the risk of potential maritime attacks being conducted by extremists. Vessels at anchor, operating in restricted maneuvering environments, or at slow speed should especially be at heightened states of awareness for any suspicious activity. Report the presence of any craft behaving in a suspicious manner towards vessels - to include loitering, photographing and conducting unauthorized approaches - to the proper authorities."

Mariners should also be further aware that quietly in the last month the USN fleet has been increased in the Region and a Press Release has now been issued. The number of minesweepers has been doubled in the Strait of Hormuz approaches. On shore various attack aircra…